women

Ladies, we have a new representative in the world of late-night TV. Starting Monday, February 8th on TBS Samantha Bee will join the males-only club of late-night television hosts with her new show titled Full Frontal. If you’re a fan of The Daily Show you will already know her brand of witty, tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic humor. I have my DVR set to record it (because the term late night implies I would have to stay up past 9:30 to watch it) and I encourage you to do the same and support this sister.

You see I’m not only excited to see a woman breaking though a barrier, I’m excited that it’s someone whose work I can truly support. In the past there have been three other woman who have hosted a late-night show–Joan Rivers, Chelsea Handler and Kathy Griffin. While all are funny their type of humor often relied on the shock value of a woman being crude. I’m all for crude but for me it wears thin quickly. It’s not enough to base a long-running show on. And I’ve never been a fan of women who get ahead by ripping on other women. Joan lost me when her red carpet comments got personal and ugly.

This is why I think Samantha Bee will have staying power. She’s smart. To get her humor you have to know some background about the topic. She was able to skewer politicians on The Daily Show because she understood them. She knew enough about their views to ask the questions that led to some hysterically funny subtle confrontations. Her subjects would walk right into the jokes and usually not realize it until later. If you watch this preview of her show you’ll see what I mean. She calls bullshit in a really funny way. She’s the opposite of pratfalls and shock-value crudeness.

I’m not only encouraging you to catch her show but let’s talk about it too. Bookmark this post and come back and let me know what you thought after the first show and I’ll do the same. Let me know if you think she has what it takes to take on Conan and Colbert. I’m looking forward to having a smart woman’s perspective but I won’t keep watching just because she is female. I’ll tune in but I’ll only keep watching if she brings the smart, sex-positive, female-supportive humor we need more of.

Tonight I’m running my business from the bed in our guest bedroom. This is where I’m writing this post, planning a class I’m going to teach and generally working on connecting with as many smart, sexy, supportive women as I can. I’m wearing my new Hello Kitty slippers and the leggings and tee shirt I put on for yoga this morning.

Despite my appearance and my lack of a real office, I know that the work I do is no less important or valid than that of suited men in nondescript glass towers. Because I represent the new business model, the entrepreneur, particularly female entrepreneurs who are rewriting the way business is done and what’s considered true commerce.

I’ve been working on refining the keywords for Karen Gordon, Author. These are terms and ideas I want tied to my work. When you type these words into Google I want my writing and teaching to appear, somewhere near the top of your results. I’m still in the process but I’ve got more direction now. Through this process I noticed that the main continuous thread in all my writing is strong females characters. Even future novels revolve around women who live their lives on their own terms.

I support women’s sexuality in my writing–in all forms. I want women to feel free to choose,without fear of social persecution, to be as sexual as they want to be or not be. I’m creating characters who are solid in their feminine power and energy whether they are sharing that with another or enjoying it just for their self.

My heroines are engaged and busy, making bank, making a home or both; they are not wasting time bringing other women down. Drama sells, but my brand is not cheap drama generated by small people. Believe me there’s enough real excitement in raising children or building a business to fill a thousand novels.

I love the idea that married or single, working inside or outside the home, all women can contribute to increasing our value in society. It’s not only the CEO’s and Vogue cover models, but women’s with much quieter goals too who are erasing old stereotypes. My writing, my business is about and for all of them.

I’m still in the process of fleshing out my exact keywords but along the way I started to think about images and the idea of black lace and my geek glasses came to mind. Alone they represent female sexuality and intellect but combined they create a potent mix. Once thought of as opposites, madonna or whore, smart or sexy, mind or body; I now see them as the perfect combination or balance of all that women can be.

I’m going to be updating some of my artwork to encompass these ideas and honing on the keywords that will hopefully bring more smart, sexy, supportive women into my tribe. It’s one of my major projects for 2016.

So what are your keywords? Whether you have a business or not, what words encompass who you are, how you want to engage with the world. Share yours with me and I’ll share mine as soon as I can pin them down. Black lace is looking good though.

It’s true, when you work from home you can spend all day in your PJ’s. (Trust me, I have.) But eventually you’re gonna need to leave the house and it’s nice to put on something besides yoga pants and an over-sized tee shirt (standard writer’s uniform).

Since I don’t work in an office it’s hard to justify spending much on clothes but I like to get a few new pieces each season. I’m rushing fall, I know. It’s still closer to 100 than 50 degrees here in Memphis but the new season of Project Runway and back to school have fall clothes on my brain. I perused my go-to fashion sites (see list below) and a few stores and came up with the following list of key fall pieces.

Utility Jacket. My niece wore one on her two-week trip to Europe. It was a great choice because it went with almost all her casual clothes, had a ton of pockets and was roomy enough to layer another jacket or sweater underneath on cold days. I have one that I picked up a few years ago at Target that I love to wear with jean or dress it up more with black pants and animal prints.

click image to see more on my Pintrest fall fashion page

2. Leather leggings. I would be more accurate to say Pleather leggings (no way I’m springing for the real thing). They look a lot like black skinny jeans but with a little more edge. Bonus: they are super comfy for travel. Most of the mall stores will have them for around $15-20 a pair. A small investment to look a little more cosmo or dangerous.

click image to see more accessories on my Pintrest page

3. Gold Jewelry. It’s easy to stack necklaces, rings and bracelets in simple geometric shapes and not have them look overwhelming. Charming Charlies has an entire wall of short, medium and long necklaces for you to mix and create your own look.

There’s a few other trends I’ve got my eye on like fringe. It would be easy to add a fringy skirt or sweater to pieces I already have for the holidays. Chunky heeled shoes are growing on me too. I’ve already pinned a few pair of leather ones to my Pintrest accessory page (click here to see.)

What trends are you adding for fall? Which ones are you avoiding? Comment below and link to your latest pins or favorite sites. If you’re not sure yet, here’s a list of links to a few of my favorite fashion bloggers. Click on each name to visit the site.

Tribe has still been on my mind a lot. This past week I was thinking about how the tribe(s) we belong to effect how we age and how we feel about getting older. All tribes have expectations about how you should act in all parts of your life, and aging is one of them. But tribes don’t hand you a list of rules when you join (but that would be so convenient). We are drawn to tribes through mutual interests or we are born in to them in family or community. If you pay close attention, there are subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) messages about behaviors that are acceptable in that group for every age.

Growing up I had an Aunt who was a blast. She and her family were very social, very involved with their church and the local VFW. They constantly had really fun parties at their house. My Aunt was a big woman, but the thing I remember most about her was how stylish she was. She went to the salon every week to have her hair styled and get a mani/pedi (bright red, of course). Those social groups were her tribe and the time, effort and money she invested into looking glamorous was part of being a member of those tribes. She was following the unspoken formula to be a member in good standing of that tribe.

Other tribes can really suck the life out of you. The fearful tribe comes to mind. This group spends an inordinate amount of time looking for signs of the end of the world and preparing for it. Not only does the stress of living this lifestyle make you look and feel old, but their focus is never on things as useless as beauty and fun. My Aunt would have been seen as a frivolous and silly for enjoying her life instead of spending it fearing the oncoming doom (that never happened in her lifetime anyway).

I am also avoiding any women-hating tribes. These don’t usually actively advertise that they hate women, but they spend a lot of time and energy suppressing women’s beauty, sensuality, joy, power. The saddest thing about these tribes is that it is almost always the women in the group who hold each other down. God forbid any of them get so uppity as to try some blue nail polish or spend an hour or so on themselves, exercising or primping or just being a girl.

The final tribe I am running from is the nay-sayers. No one in this group is ever going to be successful and they make sure of this by knocking any big idea or dream you might have. This group shuns and punishes those who dare to reach beyond the rest of the group. Gossip is their favorite weapon and they are easy to spot on social media. They post hate rants about whatever or whoever is the current media rage. Members are rewarded with praise by other members for taking the time to write hate letters to Miley Cyrus or create mocking videos on YouTube. I stumbled on a writers group the other day who have dedicated an entire forum to writing biting criticism of “50 Shades of Grey”. Jealousy never makes you feel young (childish maybe).

The best news is that you get to chose your tribe(s). If you find yourself in one that doesn’t suit you, don’t stick with it because it’s the people in your neighborhood or people you work with, etc. Go out and consciously find people you truly connect with, who build you up, enhance your life, and make you feel genuinely happy to be whatever age you are.